As an artist, my goal is to inspire. That is the highest honor one can receive. I want my art to take you to another place, regardless of the medium. A tree does not think about being a tree, it simply is a tree. As an artist, I am the same. In the moment of creating art, I simply create.
I do not fog the birth of art with musings of fame, fortune or high praise. My art is organic in nature, and I strive to keep it that way. I draw inspiration from life. There is more going on around us that can be processed. There is infinite inspiration, in every form. All forms inspire, if the eyes, ears and senses are open to them. I harness, focus and mold that energy into art.
You can be assured that when investing in my art, you are not just investing in me. I use archival quality materials, partner with local businesses and organizations and strive to be a more positive and effective member of our community. From drawings in caves, galleries, living rooms and life spaces, art consistently balances between the physical and mystical realms. Like water to the earth and blood to life, art flows through my veins.
James M White

I've won a State award for beginning a citizens group to give MLK Park near the Amtrak station some much needed dignity. On April 14, 2015, I'll receive a Community Service Award from the Michigan Recreation and Parks Association in Lansing. We'll love your interest to follow our work via email, and we'll LOVE your help! Contact me! Did you know art authorites consider our MLK sculpture one of the best? We park together, work together, depart together and go for coffee or a wee drinkie to chat up what went right, what went wrong, and to get to know each other. Leather garden gloves very important! We pick up strange stuff!
My legacy in Kalamazoo includes being the first massage therapist to start a business, Featherstone Massage Service, in 1975 at the new indoor mall in downtown Kalamazoo, the Kalamazoo Center Inn. Shortly the Hilton became owners of the hotel as they partnered with the City of Kalamazoo with the building usage. With several excellent independent contractors we introduced quality massage therapy to this town. Featherstone operated at the Hilton from 1975 to 1988. Time points to this: the Hilton and City were not good partners, the building had serious problems, and we, who love Kalamazoo, owe a great deal the people and resources who now operate the Radisson Hotel.
Subsequently, in 1995, I started a new career in a fascinating historic town on the banks of the Wabash River in southern Indiana as I became private secretary to one of the wealthiest women in the world, Jane Blaffer Owen. I've completed a non-fiction book about this interesting time, and now seek a publisher. Adjoining this profile is a photo of me and Mrs. Owen, a truly impressive woman with over 60 years of New Harmony, Indiana development including sacred site artistic creation, historic preservation, vast gardens, an Inn, restaurants, a world class bookstore, a patron of the arts and much more. For example, she commissioned world renouwned architect Philip Johnson to make a roofless church! She was a gorilla with a bottomless checkbook. Her private life was harsh, her public life was all smiles. I had the pleasure to be her social companion 14 hrs. a day, 7 days a week. She entertained visitors from around the world with her extraordinary hostess acumen and with the help of 160 employees!
The Other Woman
Private Secretary to a Daughter of Exxon Oil
by
Karen Chadwick
Here is an intimate memoir of the private secretary to an extraordinarily wealthy citizen of the 20th century, Jane Blaffer Owen, a daughter of oil money from both parents and a grande dame of Houston, Texas. She was also a developer, art patron, largest property owner, hostess extraordinaire, and businesswoman with 160 employees in a historic town on the banks of the Wabash River. Additionally, she was a wife, mother, grandmother, Episcopalian, and Republican with immense power in many circles of American culture. She was old oil money and made a point to snub new oil money Barbara Bush for a passionate cause. The “other woman” image shifts to one woman of wealth and power versus another woman with gumption to stand in the face of power.
The Other Woman opens with a letter to Chadwick’s granddaughter with a simple introduction to the legendary town, New Harmony, Indiana, and the troubled, volatile family who “Granny” grappled with. The scene changes to a frank woman-to-woman account. Join two friends at a local brewpub, Bell’s Eccentric Café in Kalamazoo, Michigan. There, while enjoying good beer and fine art, Chadwick recounts her life, loves, 14-hour workdays and party nights for over six years.
The real-life fairy tale has elements of human spirituality and frailty, from the in-depth depiction of the powerful employer’s best traits to the evil characters who wrought havoc on underlings. Readers see how Chadwick, a wounded massage therapist, turned into a valued assistant. And yes, she did have opportunity to become “the other woman.” Did she?

DAVID H. CURL, professor emeritus at Western Michigan University and former adjunct professor of Art at Kalamazoo College, taught advanced photography at the KIA and numerous workshops. His work has been widely published and displayed in more than 25 one-person shows and more than 50 other exhibitions. Formerly a photojournalist, industrial photographer, and multimedia producer, he is co-author or editor of twelve books, author of three books including a widely adopted college text, and more than 300 articles, scripts and audiovisual productions.
Dr. Curl was 2002 artist-in-residence at Hiawatha National Forest. He is a volunteer docent at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts and a consultant to the National Park Service on identification, restoration, conservation and organization of collections of historical photographs; he was also a seasonal visitor services specialist for the National Park Service and Forest Service, a communications media adviser in Nigeria for USAID, and a photo-intelligence officer in the United States Air Force.
He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Ohio University, master’s and doctorate in instructional systems technology from Indiana University and was awarded the degree of Photographic Craftsman by the Professional Photographers of America. A frequent WMU OLLI Lifelong Learning Institute instructor, he was recipient of the 2018 Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo Gayle Hoogstraten award for Arts Leadership.
July 2019

I enjoy creating an illusion for others, it is up to the individual how they interpret that illusion.The creative process often results in a wonderful surprise as it seems to spontaneously arise from some place that was previously hidden. I realize at the end of the work that the intent was there all along. Occasionally I intend to create a political or cultural statement with a piece, but only in the hopes that forthright debate is provoked. Local celebrated and revered artists have given me formal art instruction and I've still so much to learn. I am forever grateful to teachers because since that creative essence has been stirred within me, I see no end to the possibilities in life- or in art.
Past Exhibits:
LoDo & Company- Portage, MI; November/December 2014
Robin's Nest Art Gallery- Kalamazoo,MI; December 2014
Upcoming Exhibitions:
February 6, 2015- ArtHop at Fire Historical and Cultural Arts Collabrative
March 6, 2015- ArtHop at OptiMed Pharmacy

I am a writer, artist, and community organizer bridging the creative and healing arts. My creative process is interdisciplinary, combining the literary, performance, and visual arts. Poetry often serves as an interactive springboard — whether engaged with a live audience, installed in a gallery, or designed as book art. Some prevailing themes across these projects include healing, nature, spirituality, and social justice.